There is an ongoing push in the automotive industry to develop and mainstream autonomous vehicles. These self-driving vehicles will generally work in the absence of any direct driver control and are on the cusp of widespread adoption.
Fully autonomous vehicles might not come equipped with an in-vehicle driving interface, like the steering wheel, shifter and pedals included in current vehicles. There will be times, however, when manual control, or supervised autonomous controlled is desired, such as when loading/unloading vehicles from a truck, during or post assembly at the factory, in storage facilities, or because of some autonomous guidance module failures.
One solution is to provide conventional control mechanisms to autonomous vehicles, but this can be an expensive solution and may result in an inability to otherwise fully utilize cabin interior in a desirable manner.